Restoring native habitat at Catawba County’s Mountain Creek Park

Ecological restoration is underway at Mountain Creek Park, Catawba County’s 600-acre nature park on the shores of Lake Norman. Established in 2022, the park draws residents with its miles of hiking and mountain biking trails, fishing docks, playgrounds, and other amenities. With funding and volunteer help from the Microsoft Environmental Sustainability Program, the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) and Catawba Lands Conservancy are leading a three-year project to restore the park’s ecosystems by replanting native species on 80 acres of preserved land.

Coaxing back native flora to support land and aquatic habitats

The Mountain Creek Park Habitat Restoration project will restore biodiverse, resilient native hardwood forest ecosystems in a critical section of the park along Lake Norman. The spread of invasive plants like wisteria, tree-of-heaven, and Chinese privet has led to significant bank erosion, increasing stormwater runoff into Lake Norman. The rise in stormwater runoff is washing away soil nutrients and degrading aquatic habitat. Invasive plants are driving out native species, reducing biodiversity and eliminating the habitat that birds, pollinators, and wildlife need to survive. Bird and insect populations have seen significant declines in the North Carolina Piedmont Region.

The restoration of native plants is central to the project. The Catawba Lands Conservancy kicked off restoration work in the middle of 2023 by removing the dense overgrowth of invasive species and reseeding eroded banks with native grasses. In October 2024, Microsoft volunteers plant native shrubs at the site. Shrubs native to Catawba Lands such as possumhaw holly, spicebush, and arrowwood virburnum have robust root systems that stabilize the soil and prevent the leaching of nutrients. Native animals such as the marbled salamander, southern two-lined salamander, and the chuck-will’s-widow (a nocturnal nightjar bird) as well as pollinators depend on these native plants. The restoration plan will culminate with the reintroduction of larger native species such as pawpaw and silky dogwood trees.

Partnering with the Catawba County community to care for the land

Microsoft is proud to partner with Catawba Lands Conservancy and the Society for Ecological Restoration to help restore Mountain Creek Park. The project is part of SER’s Standards-based Restoration in Action program, which approaches ecological restoration as an inclusive process involving the community. Catawba Lands Conservancy and Microsoft are coordinating volunteer planting events to involve the public as environmental stewards.

The Mountain Creek Park project is an investment in the health of the community, from the land and wildlife to the people who live here. Visitors to the park can enjoy the beauty of a thriving ecosystem, with improved access and better sightlines with the removal of invasive foliage. Increased biodiversity will restore wildlife populations. Erosion control will reduce sedimentation, improving water quality in Lake Norman and across the Catawba-Wateree Basin, which provides habitat for aquatic wildlife and drinking water for over 2.5 million people. And the broader community can build connections with one another and their environment by engaging as stewards of the land.